6 games of the regular season to be played from Saturday through Monday.
December 21, Saturday
Time: 17:30 (15:30 MSK)
Venue: USH Molot, Perm, Russia
Broadcast: League site
Fonbet line: PARMA win — 1,35, Tsmoki-Minsk win — 3,20
PARMA sufferred two consecutive losses after two straight wins. But these were the games against top teams: Lokomotiv and CSKA. Meeting Minsk, PARMA obviously hopes to win and climb higher than second to last. Last week Kazys Maskvytis’ side replaced Tony Carr with the American guard Robert Johnson and young Timofey Yakushin from Khimki. With these changes PARMA’s offense should get even stronger. Robert Johnson, for example. had 43% 3-pointers in the Polish league.
Tsmoki-Minsk were really close to get the second win last game. The Dragons, however, didn’t manage to retain 13-point lead and were beaten by Zielona Gora in the OT. Tsmoki always fight to the end, but PARMA is favored to win anyway. Minsk allows an average of 90.8 points per away game, and they’ll face League’s fourth scoring team (86.4 points by PARMA).
December 22, Sunday
Time: 15:00 (15:00 MSK)
Venue: CEC Nagorny, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Broadcast: Match! Igra
Fonbet line: Nizhny win — 1,60, Enisey win — 2,35
Nizhny Novgorod had ended their losing streak in victory over Astana, but sufferred a dramatic loss in the next game against Avtodor. In the Champions League game against Bamberg, the fortune paid back, according to Zoran Lukic. Nizhny won in the same dramatic manner. It’s not easy to predict the winner of this match. Although Nizhny are below top 8, and Enisey are as high as top 3, Krasnoyarsk have only one victory more.
Enisey played its last United League game on December 6. They were beaten by Kalev in Tallinn. But Krasnoyarsk used this break for their good – outplaying Bahcesehir at the second stage of FIBA Europe Cup. Curious note is that 2 of 3 Enisey’s losses came from teams ranked lower. Technically speaking, Nizhny is the underdog of the match, but in fact the teams are equal almost in all stats including personal faceoff: 7 wins for each team.
Time: 17:00 (18:00 MSK)
Venue: Saku Suurhall, Tallinn, Estonia
Broadcast: League site
Fonbet line: Kalev win — 8,50, CSKA win — 1,07
Kalev meet the second contender in a row. Match against Khimki was not particularly joyful as the standings leaders set scoring record of the season with 118 while Kalev got only 81. Roberts Stelmaher’s side remains the least scoring and the only to stay below 80 points per game. The newcomers from the USA – Sacha Killeya-Jones from Kentucky university and Michael Finke who played for Polish Legia this season – are supposed to improve the offense.
CSKA tackled their errors after a loss from UNICS. In VTB League, they beat Astana and PARMA, while in Euroleague, the Red-blues showed one of the best season performances outplaying Crvena Zvezda with a gap of +26. Mike James with 29 points was one of the key players. All in all, the American is fitting into offensive plays of Dimitris Itoudis as he became team’s top scorer agains Astana and PARMA (23 and 27 points).
Time: 19:30 (21:30 MSK)
Venue: CRS Hala Zielona Góra, Zielona Gora, Poland
Broadcast: League site
Fonbet line: Zielona Gora win — 2,15, Astana win — 1,70
Zielona Gora had been perceived as the dark horse, and by the end of the year they found their spot in top 8 and lack one victory to climb to the third. However, one loss can drop them down from top 8 as well. Therefore, it’s urgent for the team from Poland to take advantage of the mini-crisis of Astana. Drew Gordon became the star of the game against Tsmoki demonstrating his probably best performance in Poland. The intrigue is his duel against Dusan Ristic who has scored three consecutive double-doubles.
Astana needs something more the epic plays of Ristic. After four games losing streak, Nur-Sultan are ranked 11th. A situation that can be easily improved in two games span given the intensity of current rankings, but Astana have to act now. Last games, they find troubles in offensive plays – a component that worked well in the beginning of the season – Emil Rajkovikj’s side managed to surpass 90 points only once in last four. And it was CSKA (where Astana allowed 104). This is Astana’s worst result this season excluding the OT game against Zenit.
December 23, Monday
Time: 19:00 (18:00 MSK)
Venue: Crystal SP, Saratov, Russia
Broadcast: League site
Fonbet line: Avtodor win — 2,75, Zenit win — 1,45
Avtodor won two incredible games: Loko and Nizhny, both with 2-points differential. Predrag Krunic debuts with a win. Generally, Saratov won 4 of the last 5 to come back to battle for playoffs. Zenit outplays Avtodor in numerous offensive stats (like 2-points and 3-points FG% where Saratov are ranked at the bottom). At the same time, Krunic’s side have an advantage to use: great and versatile frontcourt of Isaiah Hicks and Mouhammadou Jaiteh. Aged and fatigued Gustavo Ayon will have to hold them.
Zenit are going through hard times. Victories over Enisey and UNICS were followed by another losing streak, and St Petersburg lost at home again. Interestingly, Zenit are much better on the road. With 3 of 5 away wins they have 1-4 record at home. They also play the role of the road team in Euroleague after a little sensation in Istanbul where at the last seconds Gustavo Ayon passed to Andrew Albicy to hit a game winner. This victory must be a mental boost before trip to Saratov.
Time: 19:00 (19:00 MSK)
Venue: BCMO, Khimki, Russia
Broadcast: Match TV
Fonbet line: Khimki win — 1,18, Lokomotiv-Kuban win — 4,85
Khimki ranked 1st will meet Loko ranked 4th. Everybody knows what Khimki are focused on – close the year with 0 losses. But this one is going to be tough as the Yellow-blues will play their third game since December 19, their trip to Greece was a disaster (when Khimki leading +9 one minuted before the end of regulation went into OT and lost to Olympiacos 98:109). But there is a good new for Khimki: Janis Timma must be ready to play already by Friday when they meet Zalgiris. Timma hasn’t played since the end of November.
Lokomotiv-Kuban have already played three games under command of Evgeny Pashutin. In VTB League it was a successful debut with a win over PARMA, but in Eurocup, they Red-greens couldn’t make a decisive game winner against Tofas. Loko didn’t qualify for Top 16 and left Eurocup. Nonetheless, now the coaching staff have time to rebuild the team. Even with two coaches sacked during the season, Loko shows stable defense with less thatn 80 points allowed per game (second result after CSKA). On the other hand, Kuban didn’t manage to hold back Sammy Mejia in Turkey, and now they will face more dangerous opponent Alexey Shved. The overall game against Olympiacos was a disaster, but Shved’s performance was amazing: 36 points and 9 assists.
